Nightmare
by SugarSonic
Summary: Knuckles was smirking darkly, a crazy look in his eyes. He had no intention to loosen his grip and Sonic felt he was slowly suffocating.


**Nightmare**

**By SugarSonic**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, SEGA does.**

* * *

Sonic was running.

No surprise there.

The blue hedgehog was sprinting, rolling, hopping and speeding, smooth and rapid, through the thick green forest surrounding him.

He dashed swiftly over a bare meadow of exposed ground, only covered in random patches of grass, kicking up dust in the process. Slowing down slightly, he inclined his body to the right and neatly circled the rock blocking his way, a cocky grin plastered on his face as he disappeared through the dark woods once again.

Sonic surely looked cheerful as ever, if not more, to an observer – a good one at that, for the hedgehog was running at such speed it was almost impossible to define his expression while in movement.

His actions spoke for him anyway, telling that the little blue guy was definitely having a good time.

And how could he deny that?

He had woken up to the sound of chirping birds flying outside his window, after a peaceful sleep. He had had breakfast in the patio, feeling generally content with himself while watching the fluffy white clouds pass in the azure sky, and finally, he had left on his usual morning run, his legs powerful like never before. Indeed a perfect start.

_What could possibly go wrong on a day like this?_ Sonic thought as he neared a thin river, leaping across the water like it was the easiest thing in the world. The hedgehog reached an abrupt end where the trees compacted in one single group, but he made up for it by bolting up along the highest trunk, showing it was no problem at all. Touched the treetop, he let himself fall down the other side of the natural wall, landing perfectly on his feet in a crouched position. Getting up, he cast a look over the new area he was in, his eyes resting on one thing in particular placed in the middle of the grassy field: Tails' workshop.

It was the first place that came to Sonic's mind during his run. He liked being with his friends when he was in that happy mood, maybe to try to make them feel happy too, and Tails was the one living the closest to him in the forest, where the trees lessened in number replaced by plain emerald grass. So why not pay him a visit?

He remembered the last time he had seen the fox was when they had fought Eggman the previous week. A bit weird, since he was used to spend time with the kid a lot more frequently.

Mentally pushing his thoughts aside, the blue hedgehog approached the workshop, his shoes crunching the dead grass underneath him, and stopped in front of the main door. He grabbed the knob instinctively and turned it, like every time, but was surprised when the door did not open, finding it to be locked.

_That's odd._ He thought. Tails never locked his house. Even when he stayed out all day or more, he wouldn't lock it up, for he believed nobody would be interested in stealing his mechanical stuff.

Shrugging it off, the hedgehog merely blinked and knocked on the door various times.

"Tails! Hey, Tails! You home?" Sonic called loud enough to be heard from inside. He rested one hand on his hip and waited a few moments. Eventually soft footsteps echoed to his ears, as well as clanging sounds as the locks were undone and the door was opened.

Tails appeared on the doorway, a blank look on his face, but other than that looking the same.

"Yo Tails!" The hedgehog said cheerily, smiling brightly, "Why did ya lock yourself up? Feelin' scary?" He joked.

Icy blue eyes blinked, "Hi Sonic. What do you need?"

He raised a brow at the impassiveness the fox kid emanated, looking a little worn-out too. It was almost midday, so he surely had not been sleeping.

He couldn't help but grin playfully, "Someone's having too much fun, huh?"

It was Tails' turn to raise a brow. He gave him a look.

"What?" Sonic inquired defensively, "You know, you look kinda strange. You sure you're okay, buddy?" Then he tried to glance past his shoulder, "What were you doing, by the way?"

The fox shrugged, "Nothing at all."

Sonic eyed him suspiciously. He thought he was going to rant about his newest invention.

A smirk, "Nothing at all? Whatever, Mr. Huggermugger." He removed the hand from his hip and pointed behind him, "How about a little trip outside?"

The thinnest of smiles appeared on Tails' face, "Sure," he replied, "We can use the Tornado."

"Sweet! I'll show ya some tricks!" Sonic said and dashed to the back of the workshop, where the plane lay on the green grass, the sunlight reflecting off its surface giving it a shiny look.

He stood there, staring and smiling, and waited for Tails, who arrived jogging and out of breath minutes later. He stopped and panted, putting his hands on his knees for support. Sonic gave him a questioning look.

"I had to get these." He held up a pair of goggles for the hedgehog to see.

Sonic watched as Tails put them on, the brown elastic band also covering his large ears. He blinked.

"Can you even hear with those?"

"Uh?"

"Never mind."

Tails walked over to the Tornado and clumsily climbed into the driver seat, while Sonic simply jumped onto its right wing.

He grinned and gave him a thumb-up, "We're ready to go!"

The fox turned his head and worked with the controls, causing the propeller to start spinning. Slowly, the plane began moving forward, then faster, until its wheels weren't touching the ground anymore. As it took off, Sonic kneeled down to keep himself stable, so that he would not fall during the initial part of the flight.

The Tornado went higher and higher and when Sonic looked down he could see the workshop had reduced to a dot. He grinned and got up, the wind blowing through his quills. It was time to have some fun.

* * *

Some time had passed, with the blue plane still speeding through the open sky as Tails drove skillfully at a steady pace. Sonic, on the other hand, was busy performing all the kinds of tricks he knew, like acrobatic jumps and flips.

He would jump from one wing to the other with ease and happily exclaim: "Check this out!"

Too bad the furry fox did not seem to hear at all with those oversized goggles of his. And see how much the blue hedgehog was enjoying it.

Using his hands, Sonic pushed his body up, until he was completely upside down with his feet dangling and lightly swinging in the air. Feeling equilibrated, he raised his head and squinted his eyes to see better, when he noticed something else floating along with the clouds. It looked like...a flying island?

"Hey! Tails! Isn't that Angel Island over there?" He called, receiving no response from the fox. With all the noise coming from the propeller and the motor, and with the band covering his ears, Tails had heard nothing, just like before.

One couldn't even tell the look in his eyes, for the light-reflecting lenses of his goggles made it impossible to see through.

But suddenly, for a brief second, something gleamed.

"Yeah, it is! I can see the trees now!" Sonic continued, still not moving from his position, "Why don't we go there? I wonder how that Knucklehead's doing. I bet he grew roots of boredom watching his precious Master Emera–AAAAARGH!" He screamed unexpectedly.

The Tornado had, in fact, accelerated with a burst of energy and Sonic swiftly grabbed the edge of the wing with one hand to prevent being sucked away.

"Tails! What are you doing?!" He yelled to the fox, feeling utterly scared for his life, something he hadn't been used to for a very long time.

He got no reaction from him.

Things turned even worse when the plane began twisting and spinning, making the fearful hedgehog yelp in surprise and grip the wing tightly with both hands, as he felt the lower part of his body slide across the surface. His stomach protested and he was hit by a strong sense of nausea, his hands and fingers starting to hurt too. He could hardly breathe or see, for the wind blowing so forcefully had his eyes completely dried.

He squeezed them shut when the Tornado made one final arch through the air, immediately regretting the moment he had put foot on that thing.

"Tails! Tails! Stop it now! Tails!" He kept yelling desperately at the top of his lungs, feeling his grip weakening by the second.

"TAILS!"

The fox seemed to have heard that, for he turned his head to look at him, watching the blue hedgehog glued frantically on the wing.

Finally, he stabilized the plane and drove speedily in the direction of the floating island, with Sonic still clinging for his life.

* * *

The Tornado landed without any particular difficulty.

Tails was the first to get off. He removed his goggles and appended them on the back of his seat. Then, he climbed out and stood on the emerald grass that carpeted the whole island.

Sonic, instead, was still attached to the metallic wing, trembling slightly and recovering from the previous experience.

He hadn't been really scared of falling off. It had happened a few times before actually. But since his fox friend had been acting so strangely, he was more afraid of falling without him steering back to go and catch him. He thanked his reflexes he was still alive.

Usually he wasn't that untrusting to his friends, but Tails looked seriously like a zombie that day. It was starting to preoccupy him.

Sighing in relief and appreciating the fact that now there was solid earth below him, the hedgehog released his grip and let his body hit the ground with a thud. He was up again seconds later, his heart beating so fast he could feel it pulse in his ears, and faced the fox, trying to keep his anger at bay.

"Just...what...I...you were..." He bit his lip, collecting his thoughts, and took a deep breath to calm down, "What's the problem with you today?" He said softly to not offend his friend.

Tails looked at him apologetically, a small sheepish smile on his lips, "I'm sorry, Sonic. I just...I mean, we always do that...I thought you wanted to have some fun..." He trailed off, the smile vanishing.

"Yeah, we always do that...but with you advising me first." He said crossing his arms and looking at his side, his anger slowly dieing away.

"Sorry..." Tails' ears folded back, but Sonic reassured him with his trademark grin.

"Just forget it, buddy." He said cheerily, making the other's smile resurface once again. He turned and started heading where he knew Knuckles spent most of his time.

"You owe me a chili-dog, by the way." He added smirking.

The hedgehog kept walking then stopped, not hearing his friend's footsteps following him. Turning around for the second time, he noticed Tails was back on the Tornado, and blinked.

"Well? You not coming?" He asked lightly surprised. The fox gave him a soft smile and activated the plane.

"I have some things to take care of. See you later, Sonic!" He yelled over the sound of the spinning propeller. The blue hedgehog simply shook his head, watching him get away.

"It's just you and me now, Sonic." He said to himself, then grinned cockily, "Let's go see what Knucklehead's doing."

And he was gone in a flash.

* * *

Sonic ran, avoiding trees and rocks that were in his way, and managed to get across the whole island within a few seconds. He reached the grassy area where both the Master Emerald and its owner resided, just in time to spot a certain white bat fly away.

The hedgehog watched until she disappeared then turned his attention to the huge shrine made of grey stones that was in front of him. He could clearly see the red echidna lying on its top and the emerald placed neatly behind.

He smirked as an idea struck him.

* * *

Knuckles lay on the stony floor with his eyes closed, feeling completely at peace. That was, until a sudden mocking voice startled him.

"Knuckles...Knuckles..." It chanted, seemingly coming from the Master Emerald.

He blinked at first, caught by surprise, then recognized the voice and rolled his eyes.

"Who is it?" He asked in a dull tone, almost swearing he had heard a snicker coming from the gem.

"It's me, the Master Emerald..." It went again.

"Ah, what can I do for you?" Knuckles continued, scratching his cheek in an uninterested way.

"You must prove your loyalty to me..." It whispered, "Knuckles the Echidna..."

"And how am I going to accomplish that?" He was now examining his gloves very carefully.

"Express your absolute admiration to your hedgehog friend...and reward him with chili-dogs...loads and loads of chili-dogs..."

"Sonic."

"Yes...the blue hedgehog..."

"No. I meant, Sonic, quit it. I know it's you." He called calmly, staring at the sky above him.

The next second, Sonic had come out of his hiding and was standing by the echidna's side, a false pout on his face.

"Aw, and I thought your second name was Gullible..." He joked, then couldn't resist a grin, "Say, what was Rougey doin' here?" He just loved to annoy him.

Knuckles kept his gaze on the clouds, "She just came for a quick visit." He said in a relaxed tone.

Sonic scoffed, "Oh, yeah...a visit, sure." The echidna raised a brow at that and turned his head to look at him, finding him grinning from ear to ear. He said nothing however, redirecting his attention back to the sky.

Sonic's grin dissolved. He had gone up there practically to make fun of Knuckles, and there he was, lying with his arms crossed behind his head and one leg swinging over the other, without a care in the world.

He huffed annoyingly, "How come you're looking so happy, weirdy?"

The guardian ceased his movement and twisted his head at him, staring with questioning violet eyes.

"I mean, I come here and play with your rock, tease you, make comments about Rouge, and you still haven't kicked me off your island." The echidna blinked.

He continued, "I'm surprised. I was expecting some...um, action!"

This time, it was Knuckles to smirk, "Is that so?"

"Yeah, but I guess I'll just leave at this point. You look like you're ready to sleep." He said disappointedly, crossing his arms to his chest as he had done before, and jumping off the shrine.

Right as he finished his sentence, Knuckles launched himself towards him, arms lunging forward to attack. Sonic yelped, but reacted quickly, blocking him with both hands and sliding backwards on the ground because of the force of the hit, leaving long traits of dirt with his shoes.

He then pushed on his feet for support, flexing his arms to attack back, sending the echidna a few meters backwards. Rapidly, the hedgehog rolled up in a tight ball of spines and charged the other with his trademark homing attack.

Knuckles, however, was ready and with a speed mimicking Sonic's grabbed the blue fur-ball in a tight grip. The hedgehog was now having a hard time trying to keep it up, so he increased his spinning until the echidna had to let go of him, for his hands were starting to burn through the gloves.

Sonic unrolled while in air and landed perfectly on his feet, lightly crouched. He looked up and gasped sharply as Knuckles came and collided directly with him. The impact made him slip and he fell, hitting the ground painfully with his back. He groaned and realized they had moved near the edge of the island as some of his quills were now dangling in the air.

He didn't have much time to take in how dangerous that actually was, because the echidna had already sealed his strong hands around his neck, strangling him.

The hedgehog instinctively grabbed the other's wrists with his own hands, gasping for air. Then he saw it, his eyes widening slightly in newfound fear.

Knuckles was smirking darkly, a crazy look in his eyes. He had no intention to loosen his grip and Sonic felt he was slowly suffocating. His oxygen was running out, his head was light and dizzy, and part of his body had gotten numb.

"Knuckles..." He called weakly, but the guardian responded applying more pressure to his throat.

He was getting more and more desperate. The echidna wouldn't let go and suddenly he felt that his whole head was dangling in nothingness. His neck hurt and something was painfully pulsing in his ears.

"Knuckles..." He choked out again, a growing heat overwhelming his entire body.

He thought he was seriously going to die.

That caused something inside him to kick in. His eyes shot open and he clenched Knuckles' wrist, stronger than before. He hit the guardian in the stomach with his knee, quite powerfully, even for his state, and literally sent him flying away.

Sonic gasped and resumed breathing when Knuckles' hands left his neck. He instantly got up from his risky position, crawling away from the edge and massaging his sore throat. He panted heavily, feeling his heart beat so fast he thought it would either stop or explode soon.

Finally looking up, the hedgehog glanced at the echidna, which had landed near the steps of the shrine, and was now rubbing his own head like nothing had happened.

After waiting a few more seconds to recover, Sonic got up and approached the guardian very slowly and carefully, glaring daggers at him.

"Just what..." He rasped and coughed a couple of times, "What were you trying to do? Kill me?"

Knuckles looked at him and smirked in a teasingly way, "Maybe."

Sonic frowned, "That's not funny. You could have killed me like that. And you were pushing me off the edge too." Then he cleared his throat as he was still speaking in a husky voice.

The other's smirk faded, "Well, I thought you wanted that from the beginning."

* * *

"Man, what a day!" Sonic huffed, running through a forest. Knuckles' last remark sent him chills down his spine and after that he wanted to leave as soon as possible. So, he let the echidna fall asleep at some point and jumped off the island to the nearest mountain at great speed. Sliding from the mountain was actually pretty fun, but he had to stop when he reached the woods.

He kept speeding and soon recognized the place around him, "Hey, this is where Shadow and I race from time to time! I should ask him…" He stopped abruptly as he spotted someone in the distance.

Shadow the Hedgehog was calmly walking in the forest, approaching Sonic ever so slowly.

"Speak of the Devil!" He rushed the meters that divided the two and reappeared with his trademark grin, "Yo, what's up, Faker? You goin' shopping?"

His response wasn't exactly what Sonic was expecting.

"CHAOS SPEAR!"

As Sonic moved, the energy attack flew right past him and hit a tree, breaking it in half right in the middle. Sonic looked with a shocked expression: "That…that tree could have been me…" He said horrified, backing away from the disaster.

Shadow blinked and watched as some branches fell off the tree, completely unimpressed.

Sonic turned swiftly to the black hedgehog: "The Hell, Shadow! You almost killed me!" He stopped again, now hit by a strong sense of déjà vu.

"…" Shadow said nothing. Instead, he looked up in the sky as a few raindrops started falling on his head and quills.

"Are you even listening to me?!" Sonic began, but he stopped too when more drops fell on his nose and head. He looked up too and noticed the sky was covered in thick black clouds, one of them even flashed at some point.

Shadow looked back at him, "There's going to be a storm here, we better move and search for shelter."

Sonic nodded briefly as more drops fell all over his body; he really hated water so much.

The sky roared once more as the black clouds poured loads and loads of rain. The strong wind didn't help either. The storm was getting the more and more dangerous for the creatures outside.

Our two hedgehogs were currently running at a normal pace under the rain, heads covered with a couple of huge leaves found next to the fallen tree.

"I'm soaked to the bone and this stupid leaf ain't giving a help!" Sonic said irritated for the current situation. He threw the leaf away carelessly and sped up the jogging a bit so he was standing next to Shadow.

"If we keep running slow like this we'll never find a place to hide! You need to move faster!" He said desperately as the wind was basically blowing his face away. On the other hand, Shadow looked quite comfortable under his big leaf and had no intention on going faster than that.

Sonic stared at him for a moment, biting back something he wanted to say and simply took off in a random direction, yelling over the rain: "Whatever Shads, see you later!" And with that he was gone in a flash.

* * *

Minutes passed, as well as the forest, and Sonic finally spotted a familiar group of small houses, and one in particular caught his attention. He grimaced at the thought but had no other choice, so he went for that direction as fast as he could.

He stopped on the porch of the house and cringed at its color: pink. Pink all over.

"Oh well, can't be that bad, can it?" Sonic smiled inwardly thinking he could finally get his quills and fur to dry and stay warm.

"…" He stopped for a second, and sighed. Great, now he felt remorse for leaving Shadow behind. Maybe he should go back and search for him…?

A sudden thunder made him jump and change his mind. He quickly rang the doorbell of the house and waited. Soft footsteps could be heard and finally the door opened, revealing none other than…

"S-Shadow…?" Sonic said in disbelief, "When did you get here?"

"Um…" He looked pensive, "About five minutes ago? Not much, who needed to "go faster" now, huh?" Then smirked.

Sonic looked like his ears could start fuming every second now…and to think that he wanted to go back and look for him.

He made Shadow move from the door with his arm and proceeded to walk inside, dripping all over the floor.

"Sonic!"

"Huh?" The hedgehog looked up to see a very well known face, "Amy?"

"Hurry inside and close the door, it's so cold outside!" She giggled, and turned to what she was doing: cooking.

Shadow closed the door and picked a seat at the table in the center of the kitchen, while Sonic started catching a delicious scent in the air. He sniffed with his nose a bit, "Yum, I'd give all my rings for something to eat right now!"

Amy stopped stirring the food in the cooking pot, and made a twirl, letting her pink apron flap in the air, "Then worry no longer, I cooked enough for the three of us!"

Sonic smiled, feeling better all of a sudden, "Sweet!" Maybe that day wasn't so bad after all.

He took a chair and sat down too next to Shadow, waiting impatiently for his food to come.

"It's ready!" Amy chirped. She turned off the fire underneath the pot and she took it with her gloves to serve, "Shadow was so nice to prepare the table for us, right Sonic?" She said happily, approaching the table with the hot steaming food in her hands.

Sonic smirked and turned to Shadow, "Yeah, so nice." However, he stopped. Shadow was looking at him with the very same expression Tails and Knuckles had before.

Something was wrong.

"Hey Shad, are you ok-?"

"AAAAAH!"

Sonic jumped…just in time to prevent a full pot of hot steaming water from crashing onto his legs. Amy had slipped and now the water was on Sonic's chair and floor, making almost angry gurgling noises.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Sonic barked, moving away from his place and checking if the water had burned him anywhere.

"Seriously, what is wrong with you? You wanted to kill me or something?!"

Wait.

In that very moment a lightning struck and hit Amy's house, causing the lights to go out. Sonic was petrified on place. He noticed his breath cane out as puffs of warm air. He started to tremble; he didn't like how this was going.

Then, he saw them.

For a moment, another lightning hit near the house and illuminated everything inside the room. Just a brief second, but it was enough for Sonic to see. He saw the distorted faces of Amy and Shadow grinning at him. They looked like dead dolls, just like Tails and Knuckles.

He panicked.

"I'm out of here, I'M OUT OF HERE!" He bolted for the door and in a second he was out, in the storm, once again.

* * *

Sonic was running.

No surprise there.

The blue hedgehog was sprinting, rolling, hopping and speeding, smooth and rapid, through the forest of buildings surrounding him.

"I wanna go home, I WANNA GO HOME!" He panicked as a car almost run over him. He circled it with not so much ease as the rain and wind made every movement impossible even for him. He stopped dead in his tracks as he suddenly realized he was lost.

"I wanna go home…" He kept repeating to himself, trying not to panic again and looking in every direction of where possibly could be his house.

Everything around him was so tall and…grey. Grey buildings, grey houses, grey streets…it looked like a maze.

"I wanna go…uh?" Sonic was desperately looking around trying to find a way out when, through rain and wind, something caught his eyes. Something red.

He squinted his eyes, "An umbrella?"

Looking closer he recognized who was holding the umbrella, "C-Cream?"

Indeed she was, as she turned her head to look at him, blank expression on her face, other than that looking normal.

"Cream! Listen, I have to talk to you, it's important!" The little rabbit shook her head slowly. Sonic tensed, "Maybe she can't hear me?"

"Cream…" He started, stepping on the road to cross.

And that's when everything stopped.

He couldn't hear, he couldn't move…he could only watch as the little rabbit grinned from ear to ear, leaned in and whispered…

"Watch. Out."

Sounds exploded to his ears, and he had only the time to turn his head and see a car racing at full speed towards him. Sonic's eyes widened and tried to move to escape. Too bad he tripped on the concrete steps, thus falling and hitting his head hard on the ground.

A few indistinct sounds, then everything went blank.

He had blacked out.

* * *

Somewhere, in a blue room, tucked in a blue bed, someone was sleeping. Next to him there was a window, open, and two little birds chirping happily with each other. That's when Sonic the Hedgehog woke up.

"Ugh…" He sat up on the bed and rubbed his eyes, "What the…?"

"Hey Sonic!"

"AH!" Sonic jumped at the bright voice just heard. He turned his face to see little Tails on his doorstep, happy expression and everything, "Tails?"

"Yup, that's me! Good morning!" His ears folded back in a worried manner, "Are you okay, Sonic?"

The blue hedgehog studied the fox with attention before asking, "You're not trying to kill me, right?"

Tails looked genuinely surprised, "Kill you?" He laughed, "What are you saying? Why would I kill my brother?"

Sonic chuckled a bit too, "Uh, I don't know?" He was still a bit nervous.

Tails put his hands on his hips and gave him a sly grin, "you had one of those nightmares again?"

Sonic stared at him, "Nightmares?"

The fox nodded and smiled, trying to reassure him, "Don't worry, it's gone now."

Sonic stared at him some more, then he let out a sigh and let himself fall backwards on the bed again, "Phew, it was just a nightmare after all!" He grinned, "Silly me, ha."

The kit let his tails swag happily as he smiled, "I prepared pancakes and juice for you! Wait here!" And with that he rushed to the kitchen.

He took out a tray where he put a plate with a few pancakes and a glass filled with orange juice then he stopped.

Sonic smiled, how stupid of him to think his friends wanted him dead. He surely had weird nightmares. He closed his eyes and relaxed, "Just a nightmare."

"Yes Sonic", Tails murmured in the kitchen. He took out a little bottle filled with transparent liquid and poured it in the juice.

His eyes gleamed again, that creepy grin on his face.

"Just a Nightmare."

_FIN_


End file.
